A known upper feeding device of a suitable kind is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,398 in which up and down motions directed perpendicular to the throat plate of the machine are imparted to a presser foot executing a feeding motion and a presser foot alternately reciprocating with the latter by means of a multi-member gear via an angle lever. The speed of said up and down motion approaches zero during the touch-down phase of the presser feet. To improve the operating characteristics the gear includes a steering arm transmission, the ratio of which can be varied by a linkage gear acting at double the frequency of the gear. This is intended to result in a low-wear lifting drive for the upper feeding device which is almost maintenance-free and thus also permits high sewing speeds. For this purpose the linkage gear has a second eccentric which is driven by the arm shaft, said eccentric being joined to the steering arm transmission via an eccentric rod, a rocker, a coupling member and a rocker lever so that the coupling member and the rocker oscillate between two points which are the same distance apart from the stretched position of the coupling member and the arm of the rocker connected thereto. This known embodiment has the disadvantage that the alternating moment i.e the intent of change over of the two presser feet also varies when the thickness of the workpiece varies. Furthermore, the strokes of the presser feet change when the thickness of the material varies. When the strokes of the presser feet vary, this in turn changes the alternating moment of the presser feet. With different stroke settings the ratio of the strokes of the two presser feet to each other changes. The size of the change in stroke is limited kinetically by the basic design of the adjusting gear because unfavorable transmission ratios result from very small and very large strokes. Furthermore, the alternating moments of the presser feet cannot be selected independently of each other. Moreover, free selection of acceleration to achieve a particularly favorable motion is not possible. Finally, numerous components and links with very little play are necessary.